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Nikon Announces New 32mm Lnes for 1 System, Equals an 85mm Portrait Lens

Ha! Bet you thought I’d forgotten about Nikon’s new lens announcement today, didn’t you? Not so! I was merely distracted by what I consider to be an important matter:

With jalapeno chips. Always with jalapeno chips.

With jalapeno chips. Always with jalapeno chips.

However, now that that small matter is out of the way, let’s talk about Nikon’s new 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 portrait lens.

The sandwich is still better looking, but only just.

The sandwich is still better looking, but only just.

Thanks to the Nikon 1′s system’s odd choice of a 1″ sensor with its accompanying 2.7x crop factor, this lens has the field of view one would expect from an 85mm on a full-frame body. But, as a reminder for those of you new to this, that’s just the field-of-view, the rest of this lens (subject/background separation and depth of field) will continue to behave exactly like a 32mm lens. So, while it’ll look like an 85mm as far as what fits in the frame, you’re still going to see over twice the depth of field a full-frame 85mm f1.4 would at the same distances and the same f-stops. However, the f1.2 will also still really be f1.2, and that means this thing will be rockin’ in low-light, where that extra depth of field will also help make your life a lot easier. Seriously, you ever tried to focus on the eye of a hard rocker in a dark venue with an 85mm f1.4 and prayed you got it close enough that even half his face is in focus? That’ll be less of a problem with this.

And… actually, that’s most of what I had to say. It’s a 32mm (85mm FOV) f1.2, it’s really pretty honest upfront about what it’s gonna do for you. It’s got a silent-wave motor, as you’d expect, and nano coating to reduce flare. No VR though, in accordance with the prophecy. or at least with Nikon’s general thoughts on lenses f2.8 and faster not needing VR regardless of focal length. Ooh, there is an MTF chart though:

3359_MTF_01_en

Not quite as strong as your average 85mm f1.4 turns out, but lets not forget this is an f1.2 lens and also like a sixth the size of your average 85mm, so, that’s actually a pretty strong showing there. And, if you’re a 1 system owner, it’s really about your only choice for portrait primes. So, the question really becomes: do you want it, or don’t ya?

http://robertscamera.com/1-nikkor-32mm-f-1-2.html



Canon’s New 200-400mm f4 Has the 1.4x Extender Built In, Costs As Much As A Chevy

Have you heard of anchoring? It’s a psychological phenomenon where once you’ve had one number put in your head, regardless of whether it’s actually based on anything, you make subsequent valuation calls based on it. With that in mind, I’d like to present a little exercise in anchoring:

Chevrolet Spark, MSRP starting at $12,185

Chevrolet Spark, MSRP starting at $12,185

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM 1.4x Extender, MSRP $11,799

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM 1.4x Extender, MSRP $11,799

See? If I did that right, you’ll now forever remember that the Canon 200-400 is cheaper than the spiritual descendant of a Geo. You’re welcome.

In other news, the newly announced Canon 200-400 is one heckuva lens. I mean, other than the nice focal range and constant f4 aperture and IS that you probably figured out from the name, there’s the built-in dedicated 1.4x extender that can be toggled on to make it a 280-560mm f5.6. And on top of that, well, have you seen the MTF charts? probably not, let me help you with that:

ef200-400_4lisu_mtf_tele_off

ef200-400_4lisu_mtf_tele_on

ef200-400_4lisu_mtf_wide_off

ef200-400_4lisu_mtf_wide_on

 

For those of you not so good with MTF here’s the really super simplified how-to guide for making sense of these:

  • The dark blue solid line represents contrast
  • The light blue solid line represents detail
  • The left side of the graph is the center of the frame, the right side is the corners
  • The closer to the top the lines are, the better they are
  • The dashed lines represent various astigmatism effects
  • The closer to the solid lines the dashed ones are, the prettier your bokeh will be.

So, with that quick coder ring there, a scan over those MTF charts suggests that this is one sharp lens. If you can’t see that light blue line, it’s because it’s essentially at the same place as the dark blue one, which is near unheard of. This lens may cost as much as a domestic sedan, but it has the optical chutzpah to back that tag up.

By now, I figure you’re either refinancing your house to get one, or have decided you won’t ever be doing anything but lusting over this, so, instead of dragging this out more, I’ll just post this preorder link here for those of you in the first group, k?

http://robertscamera.com/photo/lenses/for-slrs-dslrs/zooms/telephoto/ef-200-400mm-f-4l-is-usm-extender-1-4x.html



Olympus Comes Clean With New Pen E-P5

PEN_E-P5_EZ-M1442IIR_silver_black__Product_010__x290

 

Back when Olympus launched their mirrorless Micro Four-Thirds system with the rebooted Pen brand and the Pen E-P1, it was one of the best looking cameras anyone had made in ages. Then, along came the rebooted OM series a few years later, and the bar for handsome retro was upped again with their attentive resurrection of the classic SLRs of yore. So, now the newest Pen takes even more retro cues from it’s bigger brother in the OM-D line, resurrecting a design style Olympus says is based directly off the original Pen F. Can’t say it’s too bad a plan, judging by how it turned out in the looks department.

Any way, the Pen E-P5 is now slated to be the second highest model in Olympus’ rather sizey Micro Four-Thirds system. it sits on the top of the Pen system, but still just below the OM-D E-M5 (most obviously through lack of integrated viewfinder and weather-sealing). However, that place blurs a little bit as you skim the specs sheet. The E-P5 sports a top shutter speed of 1/8000 of a second, and flash x-sync at an earnest 1/320, both of which tidily surpass even the E-M5. Other specs like 9fps shooting speed, 0.044 second lag speeds with AF, the E-P5′s AF system and 5-axis (compensating for shift in the X-Y-Z axes and also for pitch and yaw rotational shake), built-in wifi and an available app for select smartphone platforms, and a new switch that changes the dials from controling aperture and shutter to changing ISO and WB with a simple flick help reassure that this is quite a contender indeed.

The usual other specs are on board too, such as a 3″ high-rez tilting touch display, 16 megapixels, a virtual level, a built-in flash with Olympus’ usual advanced hotshoe that allows mounting both extenral flashes and an optional EVF, HD video, and so forth.

The Pen E-P5 sounds like quite a camera for those invested in the M4/3 system, and will come body only in black, silver or white for right at $1000, or with a 17mm f1.8 frime and the new VF-4 viewfinder for $1500 in only black or silver. Availability for all of it is slated as this month, but you could still go ahead and hit up our preorder pages to reserve one before then:

http://robertscamera.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=e-p5&archived=1776



Panasonic US Confirms G6 and LF1

ImageG6KK_lores

 

We’re going to be honest with you: we suspect we’re not the only camera blog you read. It’s OK. We understand. *sniff* So, we also assume most of you are probably by now already aware that Panasonic has announced a new G-series micro Four-Thirds mirrorless compact (their first one that’s just a “G” and not a “GH” or “GF” since 2008, says their graphic) dubbed the DMC-G6, and a somewhat more exciting new point-and-shoot called the DMC-LF1. I mean, every other tech blog in the world was talking about them Wednesday night (see, I read those other blogs too, it’s OK. Really). So, we’ll just do a quick recap here for anyone who does actually just follow us, but more in-depth stuff can be found other places quite easily. Mostly we’re just confirming that yes, finally, Panasonic US is showing that these will be officially coming over here, so now we can finally say something about them.

So, the one pictured above is the G6, and it’s a quasi-DLSR shaped mirrorless compact with a built-in EVF and a general design and feel made more for people used to DLSRs than people wanting a better point and shoot. It’s a 16 megapixel shooter with a newly designed processor and filter that offer increased performance and 3-5% gains in resolution over other Panasonic designs, as well as ISO up to 25,600 (extended) and 7 frames-per-second. It’s got wi-fi and NFC built-in, a 3″ tilt/swivel 1036k dot touch panel on the back, a new higher resolution OLED EVF, Panasonic’s well-respected movie mode and quality settings, and support for all the usual M4/3 accessories and lenses, including those made by Olympus, Metz, and Sigma. So far they’re only talking about it as a kit with a 14-42mm II lens, and no price has been mentioned yet.

LF1_F2_lores

 

More exciting is the new LF1 compact camera. It’s smaller and simpler than their awesome LX7, but has an EVF built-in for people who prefer a viewfinder at all to the arms-length LCD-only shooting of most modern compacts. It’s got a 12 megapixel 1/1.7″ sensor, a 28-200mm equivalent f2-5.9 zoom, a high-rez EVF and rear 3″ LCD, wi-fi and NFC, support for Panasonic’s RAW format, vHD video, and a control rign around the front lens (a la Canon and Olympus’ counterparts in this range). And did I mention it’s smaller all-around than the already not-chunky LX7? I did? Good! What i can’t mention is the price, because there isn’t one yet, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for you.



Sigma Announces World’s First f1.8 Constant Zoom: 18-35mm for APS-C Bodies

sigma-18-35

 

See that lens up there? That’s Sigma’s upcoming 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM | Art, which has the very awesome privilege of being the world’s first f1.8 standard zoom. Since it’s for APS-C bodies (Canon’s Rebel / XXD / 7D series bodies, and Nikon’s DX bodies) you’re talking an equivalent FOV of 29-56mm on Canon and 27-53 on Nikon. But, that’s just the FOV equivalence. What’s exciting here is the aperture. You see, depth-of-field isn’t reliant on the “equivalent” field of view, it’s a simple function of sensor size, actual focal length, aperture, and distance to subject. As a result, you’ve probably heard people talking about the DOF stops of disadvantage when using a lens on a crop body. Things like, “sure, it’s f2.8, but since you’re on crop that’s really more like f4.” That’s a sort of simplistic and somewhat wrong way of thinking about it, but the underlying concern is true. because we use shorter lenses for the same field of view on crop bodies then we do on full-frame, and because the shorter a focal length is the deeper it’s DOF is at the same aperture, you do see deeper depth of field on an “equivalent” crop body lens than you will on a full-frame one.

Enter the f1.8 zoom. Excited to see how the f1.8 would fare in real DOF comparisons, I broke out my DSLR toolbox calculator and ran some maths for you. I ran things for two bodies, full-frame and Nikon DX (1.5x crop). Then, I picked two focal lengths with the same field of view: 18mm on the DX, 28mm on the full-frame. I kept the distance to the subject the same at 2 yards. Then, I calculated for f1.8 on the DX, and f2.8 on the full-frame. The results? At 28mm f2.8 and 2 yards to my subject on full-frame my total depth of field was 2.3 feet. At 18mm f1.8 and 2 yards to the subject on DX, the total was 2.34 feet. So, Sigma’s f1.8 zoom here will let you APS-C shooters get the same shallow DOF we full-frame shooters get from those abundant f2.8 standard lenses we get for our bodies.

And, as a perk, f1.8 is still brighter than f2.8 by 1.3 stops. So, not only will you finally be able to get the same shallow DOF, but you’ll be able to do it at lower ISOs (which should help counter for full-frame’s low-light advantage, but that’s an entirely different discussion) or faster shutter speeds. Neato.

No words on availability or pricing yet, but this new Art series lens will be available for Nikon, Canon, and Sigma mounts.

If that sounds like your cuppa, head on over to our site to learn what little more there is and get your name on our list for your own copy of it. http://robertscamera.com/18-35mm-f-1-8-dc-hsm.html



Roberts Set To Carry Sony’s Cybershot TX30 Waterproof Compact

DSCTX30P

 

I have just been informed this morning that Roberts will be carrying the new Sony Cybershot TX30. At least, I was told to make sure it went up for preorder, so, I assume we’re going to carry it and not just execute some poorly conceived post-April Fool’s April Foll’s Day joke (ha! Anyone can pull a prank on April 1st, but it takes skill to pull it off on April 3rd!). Anywho, once upon a time this type of camera was much more of a novelty (and pushed mostly by Olympus), but at this point it’s getting a bit more expected to say things like “it’s waterproof to 33 feet, shockproof for drops form 5 feet, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.” Such a camera is no longer a novelty, it’s a demographic. But, in this case, it’s a demographic applied to Sony’s very solid T-series Cybershots. These cameras feature a “deck of cards” style with a slim body and a corner mounted lens that uses folded optics to keep the size down. There’s a sliding plate that serves both as a lens cover when closed and to turn the camera on and off. It’s a nice style for compacts, and I’ve been a fan of both Sony and Fuji’s cameras that use it for several years now. The TX30 has an 18 megapixel  1/2.3″ EXMOR-R (ie, backside-illuminated) sensor, a 5x optical zoom (though, no image stabilization. Not the real kind, anyway), and no buttons on the back. Instead of buttons you get a 3.3″ OLED touchscreen to work most of the camera’s menus, making it very much like a smartphone. If the image quality holds up to what other EXMOR-R units produce, this’ll be a solid camera, and one that can survive more than average circumstances of use. It’ll run $350ish, and come in your choice of pink, orange, blue, or black.

Get on the preorder list here: http://robertscamera.com/cybershot-dsc-tx30.html



Photogenic’s Ion Inverter Gives You Power To Go

ion

 

Getting power on the go can be a difficult task, but not one your average strobe-using pro can let slow them down. Sure, there are options like Elinchrom’s Quadras (which I love and use frequently), but sometimes you just need a bit more power than a DC pack can deliver. Enter power inverters. They use a large DC battery to power a 120v AC outlet, letting you use anything that can plug into a wall, including much higher output monoblocs. And that’s what Photogenic’s new Ion pack promises to accomplish. It’s got an 8.8aH lithium-ion battery that’s provide between 2000 and 300 flashes depending on how hungry your mono is (and would provide quite a few cellphone recharges in a pinch, too), LED charge indicators, weight of only 3.5 pounds and measuring out at 7.5 x 4.4 x 3.3″. The li-ion battery will charge to full capacity in a pretty short 3-4 hours, and with that 8,800mAh rating would go a long way to running the various other gizmos in your life if you found yourself in the middle of nowhere just as readily as it could your lighting gear. So, for those of you who do most of your work nowhere near a “studio,” it seems like a pretty useful bit of kit to bring along. And, at $400 for the inverter, plus available extra batteries and replaceable inverter, it’s not even much of an investment, compared to the price of most things in our world. More to come as we get some in stock.



Canon Announces New PowerShot SX280 HS

20130321_thumbL_sx280hs_3qblackflash

 

You like zoom, right? Of course you do. Everyone likes zoom! It’s so… zoom-y. Zoom zoom zoom. Like the SX280 HS, it also likes zoom. As such, it’s brought 20x of it to the party, covering an equivalent focal range of 25mm-500mm f3.5-6.8. And, because getting the shakes out of a 500mm f6.8 is basically a superhuman task, the HS system wants us to know there’s some real IS happening in there to help out with things. It also wants us to know the conservative 12 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor is optimized for low-light performance so ISO can help us out, and will gladly extend all the way to 6400 for our convenience. Aaaand, otherwise, it’s a PowerShot HS, with all the usual niceness and auto-mode-favoring that goes with that. It’ll cost you $329.99 to own one next month, in black or red.



Canon Announces Two New Rebel DSLRs, Levels Momentary Claim Of “Smallest”

Another day, some more camera announcements. Today’s are in the forms of Canon’s new entry level series, the well-liked Rebel line. There are two models, a lower and higher one as you’d expect. The lower one is being dubbed the SL1, and makes the time-limited claim of being the world’s smallest DSLR. The other is the T5i, which presumably is an incremental update to the T4i’s guts. So, let’s see what we’ve got here then.

20130321_thumbL_eossl1_body

 

The big news on the Rebel SL1 is “small.” It’s been made tinier. It’s not big. Actually, there’s a diagram Canon made to show you how not big it is. It looks like this:

20130321_t4islicompare

 

Now, that’s the sort of decrease in size that Myron Reducto would be all over.

I feel shrinky, oh so shrinky, I feel shrinky, and dinky...

I feel shrinky, oh so shrinky, I feel shrinky, and dinky…

So, yus, it’s tiny.  4.6″ (w) x 3.57″ (h) x 2.74″ (d), and 14.36 back-breaking ounces, per their press release, but what kinda credentials is this guy packing inside that diminutive frame? Well, a Rebel, it turns out. It’s got pretty much everything you’d typically expect from a Rebel. 18 megapixel sensor, DIGIC V processor, native ISO 100-12,800 (25,600 expanded), a 9-point hybrid CMOS AF system, 3″ touchscreen, live view, HD video, yadda yadda. A quick read through the long and boring specs table shows a few more of the compromises made to keep this small and cheap. The AF points only work down to about +0.5 EV, metering only goes down to 1 EV (although it’s 0 in live view, interesting enough), shutter speeds top out at 1/4000 second, and x-sync stops at 1/200 (which is actually better than the far more expensive EOS 6D, mind you). Not a bad set of compromises given the target market will be much more casual users than pros, but it’s worth noting performance will start to get shakier once the sun is down due to some of those. The body has the usual entry-level omissions, such as no PC port or secondary control wheel, but otherwise actually does a good job of keeping the usual Rebel controls around and just pushing them tighter together.

The fun-sized Rebel SL1 will run all of $649.99 for the body only, or $799 with a new 18-55mm STM (STM indicating it has a stepping motor built for smoother, quieter AF during video use). Availability is slated for “April.” Read more specs or preorder one here: http://robertscamera.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=eos+rebel+sl1

20130321_thumbL_eost5i_front

 

And then there’s the EOS Rebel T5i (continuing the warm and familiar branding nomenclature we all know and get confused by). The core specs should sound familiar: 18 megapixels, DIGIC V, ISO 100-12,800 (25,600), max shutter of 1/4000, x-sync at 1/200, same AF and metering functions, both have built-in mics and phono ports for external ones, and so on. The Rebel T5i differs in the LCD (which is flippy in addition being a 3″ touchscreen, you see), an extra frame-per-second in continuous drive mode (5 instead of 4), and support for an external battery grip (BG-E8). It might also have some different scene modes to offer, but on the hard facts those are most of what separate this guy from the little brother. Well, that, and the $100 higher price tag, with the T5i running $749.99 body only or $899.99 with the new 18-55 STM. Once again, availability is in April. Read more about it or preorder it on our site here: http://robertscamera.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=eos+rebel+t5i



AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR available to pre-order.

2208-AF-S-NIKKOR-80-400mmThis is good news indeed, folks. If you’re a Nikon shooter with a thirst for telephoto zoominess and you’ve been sitting around staring at a pile of dollars sufficient to buy Nikon’s AF-S NIKKOR 70-200 f/2.8G ED VR II but just can’t bring yourself to buy it, keep waiting and adding to the pile because sometime in April we’re supposed to be getting another telephoto zoom from the Nikon, the AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR.

Nikon indicates it’ll be retailing for $2699.95 – a bit higher than the sleepy, old AF VR 80-400 (currently on rebate for a lot less money). From the nomenclature we know that it’ll focus faster as it’s got Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor and it’ll focus on bodies without a screw drive and that it’s got the newer G aperture system, controlled entirely by the camera body. If we look to the specs table we see that they’ve added 3 elements and a lens group and the MTF chart indicates this is a sharper lens than the D model. Nikon’s also tightened up the minimum focusing distance from 7.5′ to 5.74′ – no small change. It’s also grown on us from 6.7″ to 8″ in length (wow!) and from 47 to 56 ounces.

Get on our pre-order list today!